The Advertiser (Adelaide. Australia) 1/13/1999 Bell Jags a Quiet Hit

HERE'S a puzzling riddle: the beautiful star of one of TV's top-ranked dramas is prominently sealed in a swanky, crowded Manhattan hotel bar. She's with a mini-entourage, not to mention a reporter with a conspicuous tape recorder. But not one autograph seeker stops by to gush. And nobody seems to he checking her out. Why not'? Could it be that patrons of ritzy joints are uncommonly polite, or the subtle lighting in the elegant Essex House obscures the actor's identity'? Maybe. More plausible, though, is the theory put forth by the actor herself, JAG star Catherine Bell media underexposure ''People say 'Oh, you must get recognized so much' and I say 'No, not really. Just the people who watch JAG'," says Bell who plays Major Sarah ''Mac" MacKenzie, the feisty Marine Corps partner of navy ace-pilot-turned-lawyer, Lieutenant Commander Harmon ''Harm" Rabb, Jr. (David James Elliott). Although .JAG recently climbed into the top 10-ratings chart in the United States, it had, until only a short time ago, never been featured on the front of a magazine, even though far lower-rated series, like Fox's Ally McBeal and WB's Buffy the Vampire Slayer get more covers than a hypothermia victim. 'I've never seen Buffy, but if I saw Sarah Michelle Gellar on the street, I'd know her name and I'd know what she looks like, because she's everywhere," says Bell London-born but raised in Los Angeles. ''It's crazy, because we get so many more viewers than so many other shows, hut we're not considered a hit." Created by veteran producer Don Bellisario (Quantum Leap, Magnum P.I.), JAG (Judge Advocate General) is, in fact, a real Cinderella story. In the spring of 1996, the American NBC network cancelled the adventure drama about the elite group of officers trained as lawyers who investigate, prosecute and defend those accused of crimes in the military after its freshman year. 'The American ABC network and CBS wanted to grab it. CBS won. It unveiled the new .IAG in January, 1997, and, over the next two seasons, nurtured it into a bona fide hit, albeit with older demographics than Buffy. The show cracked the top 10 in late-November. During that period, JAG clobbered Mad About You so badly that NBC moved its ageing hit to Mondays. ''They'd never admit it, butt they have to be dying," says Bellisario, who claims ''no vindictiveness" towards NBC. ''Here they are paying ~44 million a year for the two stars on that show (Mad About You ) and JAG is kicking their butt." Bell's character also has an intriguing back story. She guest-starred in the original NBC series as a woman who gets murdered. ''The character was somebody Harm was in love with . . . At the very end of that show, he got arrested on suspicion of killing me," Bell says. ''That aired overseas, butt not here, because it was a cliffhanger, and NBC dropped the show, so they just never aired it.'' Bellisario directed that episode and liked Bell's work. When she heard that CBS had picked up the show and was looking for a new female lead (the original starred Tracey Needham. a ''blonde bombshell" hand-picked by NBC, Bellisario says), Bell wrote to him. ''I said 'I love Mac. Mac is me. I gotta play this part'," she recalls. ''I also said 'Wouldn't it be kind of interesting if Harm' s new partner looks like this dead woman that he was in love with'?' Bellisario liked the idea: "I thought 'Nobody's seen her, except overseas. When she appears on the first episode of JAG on CBS, he'll do a double take'." (That's what happened. And last season, JAG did an episode that resolved that original murder mystery.) As she'd suspected, Bell who lives with her husband, Adam Beason, in Los Angeles, loves playing Mac. "There are very few parts where a woman gets to be intelligent, and a lawyer, and kicks ass, and still be feminine and have a romantic life," she says. To prepare for the role, Bell who loves intense sports like skydiving. bungee jumping, kick-boxing, and racing-car driving spent a few days at the Camp Pendleton Marine base in San Diego, where she saw some JAG trials and watched some boot-camp training. Alas, she was not allowed to participate, although she adds: ''They did let me take apart an M- 1 6 and putt it hack together with three or four drill sergeants screaming at me." Although the navy and marines were initially leery of JAG, they are greatly co-operative now. Their support which is on ''a show-by-show basis", Bellisario says translates to allowing .JAG to use military equipment and film on bases. (There are plans to shoot on aircraft carriers this season.) The commandant of the Man tie Corps has said that Mac's the poster child for the marines," Bell a former model, says. The show's really about honor and integrity and good values. We represent them in a good light and, from what I understand, enrollment has gone up in the military, and JAG specifically."